While several spoon collectors’ groups have
enjoyed varying degrees of activity in the past three decades, spooners in the
New York/New England area continued to be a scattered lot until one man pursued
the vision of forming a regional club. That man was Charles Morrison of
Rochester, New York. A veteran collector himself, Charlie had already attended
several exciting national and international collectors’ meetings when he
determined that the time was right to organize a club in the Northeast. He felt
that there were lots of collectors who for a variety of reasons couldn’t
travel to every national meeting but might be inclined to go shorter distances
to smaller meetings. He made it his personal mission to organize such a club to
involve and unite collectors interested in attending area meetings on a more
frequent basis.

From his efforts the Northeastern Spoon Collectors Guild was born on July 15,
1987. Almost single-handedly, Charlie put together a charter convention in
Rochester, NY, to launch the club. About 50 people attended the four-day event,
coming from as far away as Colorado and Florida. From those Rochester roots, the
club began to slowly take shape. A Steering
Committee was formed to begin long-term planning, and almost immediately there
was talk of hosting a national convention somewhere in the Northeast.

Nearly three years later in July, 1990, the
NSCG, then blessed with what some have described as a core group of “obsessive
compulsives,” hosted “A Souvenir Spoon Centenary” at Salem, MA. Over 100
spooners, some from as far away as Australia, came together for an extremely
memorable convention. The event had been planned to coincide with the 100th
anniversary of the 1890 issue of the first Salem Witch souvenir spoon, the very
spoon which had launched the entire souvenir spoon craze of the 1890s. So a
witch seemed a natural choice for the convention logo. But taking care not to
infringe on Daniel Low’s patented witch trademark, a stylizedwitch was created expressly for the
convention.
Thus, the Happy Witch was born. She has continued to represent our club through
the ensuing years, often changing her mode
somewhat to address current club events. In 2000 when the club hosted its third
successful convention in Washington, D.C., the Happy Witch could be seen
clinging to the base of the Washington Monument. The pin for our Niagara Falls
Convention in 2006 found our happy witch going over the falls in a barrel. At
all times you will find that she is also “hanging a spoon” from her nose. At
the first convention in Salem, the tradition of spoon-hanging was also born. The
convention planners, worn to a frazzle, yet overjoyed with the success of their
first big event, became a bit hysterical at the final banquet. One person
silently picked up a teaspoon from the dinner table and nonchalantly hung it
from the tip of her nose. Another person followed suite and soon everyone in the
entire room was trying the questionable art, hanging spoons from their snozzolas
while seemingly engaged in normal conversation as if nothing was awry. To this
day, most events end with the traditional spoon hanging as a way of celebrating
the success of yet another gathering.

Today the NSCG publishes a quarterly newsletter as well as a yearly membership
roster available only to its members. These publications make use of some jargon
normally associated with witchcraft merely as a gimmick, not because there is
any association with the occult. Our stated goal is to dedicate ourselves to “the
enjoyment of the spoon collecting hobby,” and our current membership of
approximately 200 continues to strive in that direction.

The
"Owney" Spoon Donated
to the National Postal Museum
of the Smithsonian Institution

Nancy Pope, Historian of the National Postal Museum of the Smithsonian
Institution, had been wanting to add the Owney spoon, produced by the Webb C.
Ball Co. of Cleveland, Ohio to the Owney display for many years. How to obtain
this expensive spoon to put near the feet of this Mascot of the US Railway Mail
Service puzzled her. When she saw a picture of the spoon on this NSCG web site
she contacted Norma Bowen. History was in the making!

At the spring meeting in Chicopee, Massachusetts in 2004 the NSCG launched a
national fundraising drive to raise the funds to purchase this spoon and present
it to the National Postal Museum of the Smithsonian Institution.

Spooners and friends were very generous. Norma was able to successfully win the
Owney spoon on eBay. Thus, ten NSCG members gathered in Washington, DC to hear
our President, Anne Marek, make the following presentation to a thrilled Nancy
Polk in front of the Owney Display:

"The Owney Souvenir spoon is hereby donated to the National Postal Museum
of the Smithsonian Institution by the Northeastern Spoon Collectors Guild on
April 2, 2005, on behalf of all spoon collectors."

This Owney exhibit is most popular. A taxidermist preserved this beloved dog
after his death in 1897. He still wears his harness jacket with his baggage tags
today as he did when he rode the trains. This little mixed terrier of the
Albany, New York Post Office is purported to have traveled some 143,000 miles
across four continents aboard mail trains and steamships. The baggage tags saw
that he always returned to Albany. Owney rode the trains during a dangerous time
with many train accidents. He was considered a good luck charm because no one
ever suffered an accident while he was aboard and no mail was lost.

Please visit the National Postal Museum of the Smithsonian Institution if you
are ever in Washington, DC. The Owney display is easy to locate. You will see
the NSCG's bit of history and learn a lot more about this beloved Postal Mascot,
Owney